The 9 to 5 Dilemma
by Mila92334
Summary: **UPDATED** Amy struggles with balancing her professional life and her home life. One-shot. Shamy **UPDATED**


**NOTE: This is the UPDATED version, it should work now! As I saying: This is a story I wrote on the train coming home. It's a one-shot. Please review! **

This red light was excruciatingly long. Amy took in a large breath and held it, letting the pressure build in her chest.

_Holding your breath calms you down, right? _

This was the 5th time she held her breath and she was no calmer now than she was 15 minutes ago. She mentally noted to write a strongly worded letter to whomever came up with that disastrous lie. While she was at it, she ought to write one to the City of Pasadena demanding they shorten their traffic light time. The instant the light turned green, her breath exploded from her mouth and she flew through the intersection. This was as close to NASCAR as Amy would get.

Since they brought home the Nobel, she and Sheldon had been invited to lead a number of projects. Many of them were at labs and universities across the country, some even across the world. Any other scientist would jump at the opportunities with no further questions. But, as of 5 months ago, Amy and Sheldon had a son; Elliot. Now, they only accepted projects that were in Pasadena. Or, if they weren't local, they were only for a few weeks. They both committed to being with their son as much as possible.

However, the new project Amy was leading kept her away from home more than she expected. The hours were long and by the time she made it back, Elliot was either asleep or close to it. She felt like she hadn't spent time with him in weeks. So, tonight she was racing through the dark streets of California to send her son off to bed.

Amy pulled into the parking lot, mauled the 4th floor button on the elevator, and burst through the apartment door. When she entered, she found the lights were partially off. Only two were left on; in the kitchen and the bedroom.

"Sheldon!" She called. "I'm back!"

"Oh, good! Just in time for the bedtime story." Sheldon came out of their bedroom with Elliot wrapped in a green towel. She missed another bath. "Tonight's story is the timeless family classic: Quantum Physics." He said as he snuggled his face into the baby's stomach. Elliot bubbled in giggles.

"Aw, I missed bath time, again. I wanted to see how he liked the rubber ducks I got him." She walked to the pair and grabbed Elliot from Sheldon's arms. He was warm, soft, and smelt of soap; all Amy wanted to do was cuddle him until he became an adult and got married. Or won a Nobel of his own. Or until he pooped his pants and she needed to change his diaper. You know, whichever came first.

"Oh, the ducks were wonderful!" Sheldon was bouncing on his toes. "If you pour soap in them, fill them with water and squeeze it, it comes out like a geyser. We were truly in _Yellow_stone." It was Sheldon's turn to bubble in giggles.

"Did he play with them, or did you?" Amy challenged.

He stopped. His face fell. He looked around as if to find another subject in mid-air.

"So… bedtime story?"

"I'll pick a chapter." The small family made their way to the bedroom. Amy sat in the rocking chair with a large physics encyclopedia in one hand and a baby in the other. Sheldon kneeled beside them. "How about the story of Heisenberg's equation?" Amy suggested.

"Amy!" He covered Elliot's ears. "Should we really be exposing him to Heisenberg this young? He's so impressionable, he might get nightmares."

"He's 5 months, Sheldon, he can't comprehend half of what we say."

Sheldon gasped and looked at Amy as if she disowned her own son.

"Mommy doesn't mean that." He whispered in the baby's ear.

* * *

"…and they lived happily together in a linear partial differential equation. The end."

Sheldon closed the book and took note of how Elliot was sound asleep in Amy's arms. He took the child and placed him in the crib while Amy headed to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. She stood beneath the lone amber light over the sink; her shoulders were low and her head was bowed.

"With this new project, I keep missing his bedtime." Amy confessed when she heard Sheldon shuffle into the room. Her gaze was lost in her cup.

"Being a working mother was very important to you, I thought." He followed her to the kitchen, making note of her odd behavior.

"I know, but I'm missing so much of his life."

"I see." A pregnant pause fell between them both. "If you want, we could strap a camera to his head and record a live feed? But that would be from his perspective and while I am interested in knowing what it's like to be a baby, I bet it'd get pretty boring. Or," The first idea was so great it was a wonder he could think of a better solution to Amy's problem." We could hire a camera crew that would follow his every step so we could watch it later!"

"No."

"You're right. If we expose him to that many cameras, he might get a crazy idea to become an actor."

Amy took another sip of the warm liquid. Nothing was calming her down. The same pit of pressure that built in her chest before was doing nothing but increasing in size.

"I just don't want to be a bad mother." Her voice cracked at her heartbreaking confession. She barely had the courage to look at her husband.

"Well," Sheldon started and then paused. "All of the facts say otherwise. You stay up with him all night when he won't sleep. You feed him and change him. You're certainly the better mother within our friend group. Penny brought home the wrong baby from daycare once, and Bernadette had children with Wolowitz, there is only so far you can come from that one." He held her by the shoulders and lifted her bowed head. "You could never be a bad mother." He stressed every syllable and placed a small kiss on her forehead.

"Thank you." Amy took the relaxing breath she'd been waiting 3 weeks for.

"Shall we?" He held out his hand and led the pair to the bedroom. Amy stood above their sons' crib while Sheldon reached in the drawer of the bedside table and pulled out a small pitch pipe. He blew into it, prompting Amy with the starting note and the rhythm.

_"__Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur. Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, pur, pur, pur…"_

* * *

It was early and the sun hadn't shown its face but the sky was just beginning to lighten. Amy was quietly asleep when she heard tiny whimpers and babbling coming from the crib. She found Elliot with his foot in his mouth rocking from side to side. She picked him up and carried him into the living room.

After she fed him, he turned his head and looked directly at her. He sometimes looked at her as if she was the most magnificent creature on the planet. His blue eyes roamed over her every feature, each one more wonderful than the last. Elliot Cooper loved his mother, she knew that. Amy just wanted to show him how much she admired him as well.

"I wish I could stay home with you." She stroked his soft black hair. "How about, once you're older, I bring you to my lab with me. We can do fun things like analyze the brains of wild animals, or analyze the brains of domestic animals, or we could analyze our own brains!"

He baby babbled in response.

"Yea! That does sound fun, doesn't it? We'll be the greatest pair of scientists of the generation! Well, aside from mommy and daddy but you know what I mean."

He babbled again.

"That's exactly what I was thinking!"

Elliot and Amy continued their private conversation until the sun bathed the living from night to day. These were the moments she needed to know she understood this motherhood thing.


End file.
